As part of an effort to build a stronger community, the Ardmore Behavioral Health Collaborative hosts a Community Partner Resource Fair & Report Out.
Thursday morning, those partners met at the Ardmore Convention Center to share progress reports and update partners and others on the services that are provided.
“This is the third year that we have had the event,” ABHC Director Ellen Roberts said. “We have more vendors than we have had in the year’s past, so we have grown.”
The event began with a welcome and included the community partner report out, a discussion of lows and the resource fair, during which people visited each of the partner’s tables set up throughout the convention center for program information.
Roberts said the report out allows partners to share the good things happening with their programs and the successes. During the discussion of lows, the focus is on challenges the partners and community face.
“And have some discussion about how we tackle those problems together,” she said. “And then we do a resource fair. The resource fair is for the people in the room to gather accurate up-to-date information about one another’s services. Because those services change really quickly.”
This year, Roberts said the event featured an extended resource fair from noon to 1 p.m. that targeted people such as the front desk staff for the partners to be able to attend and access information. Lunch was also served for those attending during their lunch break.
During her welcome, Roberts said there was a group called Southern Oklahoma Area Partners (SOAP), which used to meet and share information on their organizations while providing support for each other.
Several years ago, SOAP approached ABHC about taking I over. Roberts said the event was developed in an effort to honor the spirit of SOAP.
In addition to the resource fair, Roberts said ABHC has a resource page available which consists of about 150 resources listed and is very comprehensive. An audit on the page takes place once a year to ensure the information is up to date as well.
“We reach out to the organization and ask, ‘Is this still your address? Is this still your phone number, are these still services you provide,” she said. “And we can still update it through the year as we go.”
ABHC also has magnets with a QR code that takes people to the resource page. Roberts said they ordered 60,000 and organizations, businesses or individuals who would like to hand out the magnets can reach out to ABHC.
For additional information on ABHC or to access the resource page, visit www.ardmorebhc.com or call 580-517-9753.
